An example of a bearing roller of this kind is known from WO 2016/016054. A device for detecting a radial load acting on the roller is disclosed. The device comprises a load cell that spans the roller bore diameter and is in fixed contact with diametrically opposite portions of the bore surface. When the roller is radially loaded, the circular cross section of the hollow bore is deformed to an elliptical shape. Under load, the load plane remains the same, but the contact locations of the load cell rotate within this plane during rotation of the roller. As a result, the contact locations not only experience radial displacement relative to each other, but also a transverse displacement. This effect is sometimes referred to as a chewing effect.
The load cell comprises a bending beam and a hinge arrangement and is designed such that the contact locations move with the bore surfaces, via elastic deformation of the load cell, to take up the motion associated with the chewing effect. More specifically, the load cell is designed such that the radial component of the relative displacement is decoupled from the transverse component, and bending of the beam due to the radial displacement is measured in order to calculate the radial load. The bending beam extends in a radial plane of the roller bore.
There is still room for improvement.